A friend once called me the Picasso of the potato. I'm a first generation Armenian American whose family narrowly escaped genocide. I left the security of suburban American life to wander the globe and in 1969 established the first vegetarian restaurant on the magical island of Ibiza. After a stint dancing cabaret in Syria, I was incarcerated in an infamous London prison, along with my newborn baby, where I managed, even there, to pioneer a healthy way of eating. Of my culinary memoir Quincy Jones wrote "A spicy brew of recipes and adventures. I don't know whether to eat this book, smoke it or make love to it. Siren's Feast--part cookbook-large part raucous memoir."